Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo formally begins work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
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The creative brief sent to the image model. These are instructions, not a record of what actually happened.
Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The pope initially asked for only twelve Apostles and ornament; the nine-scene Genesis cycle emerged after Michelangelo rejected that plan.
May 1508, not December
Michelangelo signed the ceiling contract on 8 May 1508. Two days later he received a 500-ducat advance and recorded in a memorandum that he was beginning work on the vault that day.
The December 1508 date attached to this event is not supported by the strongest sources consulted.
The commission existed because a long crack had opened in the chapel ceiling in May 1504, probably because nearby construction disturbed the building. Bramante fitted tie rods, but the damage to the older starry-sky decoration led Julius II to commission a replacement.
Formal start and first brushstroke are not the same day
What Michelangelo began on 10 May was the project. The Metropolitan Museum dates the physical fresco campaign to late summer 1508.
Design, material preparation, plastering and scaffolding stood in between. The exact day pigment first went onto wet plaster is unknown.
Twelve Apostles become nine Genesis scenes
The contract's initial program called for twelve Apostles in the pendentives and ornamental decoration elsewhere. Michelangelo persuaded Julius II to abandon that limited scheme and give him broad control of the program.
What he built instead was centred on nine Genesis narratives, over a documented working span of 1508 to 1512.
He did not work alone. The British Museum records that Michelangelo called the painter Francesco Granacci to Rome in 1508 to assist.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1508-05-10.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The listed month, December 1508, is not supported by the strongest sources consulted.
- Michelangelo’s own memorandum makes 10 May the documented start of “work,” while technical analysis dates the sustained fresco phase to late summer. The exact day of the first brushstroke is unknown.
- The contract is dated 8 May, not 10 May; 10 May is the date of the advance and Michelangelo’s start memorandum.
- Stories that Bramante engineered the commission to make Michelangelo fail, or that Michelangelo recommended Raphael instead, derive largely from partisan early biographies and should not be presented as securely documented motives.